Cunard Eagle Airways

The Cunard Line acquired a controlling stake in Eagle in March 1960 which resulted in the creation of a joint venture company trading as Cunard Eagle. Eagle's founder Harold Bamberg was appointed as aviation director of the company. The new support enabled Cunard Eagle to order two new Boeing 707 jet aircraft in May 1961. In June 1961, Cunard Eagle became the first independent airline in the UK to be awarded a licence by the newly constituted Air Transport Licensing Board (ATLB) to operate a scheduled service on the prime Heathrow — New York JFK route, using Boeing 707 jets and Bristol Britannia turboprops at a frequency of one round-trip per day. The licence was valid for 15 years — from 31 August 1961 to 31 July 1976. The airline also won the right to serve Manchester, Glasgow Prestwick, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and Washington. The carriage of passengers on UK domestic sectors and of mail on all sectors was denied. Similarly, requests for traffic rights to Toronto, Montreal, Detroit, and Chicago were turned down. This decision angered BOAC, which was losing money at the time. It appealed to Aviation Minister Peter Thorneycroft, who was empowered to accept or reject the ATLB's recommendations and to uphold or quash appeals against its decisions. The state airline cited its order for 45 Standard and Super VC10 long-haul jets and an earlier ministerial promise not to permit another British competitor on this route in support of its appeal. The appeal was upheld, resulting in revocation of Cunard Eagle's licence in November 1961. In the meantime the airline acquired two further Britannia aircraft in March and May 1961, both ex-Canadian Pacific Air Lines aircraft.

BOAC countered Eagle's move to establish itself as a full-fledged scheduled transatlantic competitor on its Heathrow—JFK flagship route by forming BOAC-Cunard as a new £30 million joint venture with Cunard Steamship Co. BOAC contributed 70% of the new company's capital and eight Boeing 707s. Cunard Eagle's long-haul scheduled operation — including the two new 707s — was absorbed into BOAC-Cunard before delivery of the second 707, in June 1962. BOAC-Cunard leased any spare aircraft capacity to BOAC to augment the BOAC mainline fleet at peak times. As part of this deal, BOAC-Cunard also bought flying hours from BOAC for using the latter's aircraft in the event of capacity shortfalls. This maximised combined fleet utilisation. The joint fleet use agreement did not cover Cunard Eagle's European scheduled, trooping and charter operations.

Having raised his holding to 60% in February 1963, on 9 August, the airline's official name changed to British Eagle International Airlines Ltd (the name Bamberg had given the new holding company on 1 March). It had a fully paid-up share capital of £1,000,000. Initial equipment included Vickers Viscount and Bristol Britannia turboprop planes. From 16 September, a new livery displaying the British Eagle name in full on the company's aircraft was adopted. This was a legal requirement following BEA's objection to Bamberg's original plan to incorporate the abbreviation BEIA into the new livery to avoid confusion between them.

Subject ID: 17115